Eva Libre's Blog – January 2025 Archive (9)

What is success? Do we think about this? There are powerful currents about success pulling us. Lacking mindfulness and awareness, these become default, following our unwritten education. Money, fame, pleasure, and wanting to be loved. Ralph Waldo Emerson had other ideas. He wrote about success, “… to win the affection of children … to…

Born in 1864, died in 1943—forgotten by the world, left to languish in a mental hospital.

What was her story?

She came to Paris to study art at a time when the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts was open only to men.

Undeterred, she joined studios that welcomed women.

There, she met and became the…

We are divine beings in a state of recovery,

re-discovering our divinity,

winning back ourselves from states of delusion.

However, the mind is very much a key player

in the drama called life, because without it,

the consciousness cannot experience

the necessary friction for transcendence to occur.

And transcendence…

Announcing the release of the new book Voice for the Voiceless: Decades of Struggle with China for My Land and My People will be available on March 11. “In my role as the Dalai Lama, there is no issue more important than what I describe in these pages. My hope is that the book will stimulate fresh thoughts and conversations today and…

Our life is short. Before we know it, we have moved on to a new life. That is why Buddhist monks and nuns turn their teacup over after a meal. We don’t know which will come first, the next cup of tea, or the next life! That is also why we meditate and contemplate impermanence. Panic is not necessary. It can be a pause to celebrate the time we have in this life and direct it towards meaning. We are good at wasting time. Remembering the fragility and limited…

Voltaire (attributed)

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Rosa Luxemburg

“Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters.”

John Stuart Mill

“If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind…

Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th-century Benedictine abbess, mystic, composer, and polymath, left an extraordinary legacy in theology, music, and science. Among her achievements is "Liber Divinorum Operum" ("The Book of Divine Works"), a visionary text featuring a depiction of a spherical Earth experiencing different seasons…

Complete relaxation maintaining alertness has many levels. We can relax the body, while remaining alert, not falling asleep, while keeping the body still. We can relax our talking. This gives our jaw, tongue, and voice-box muscles a break. Here we enter the realm of silence. Even though vocally silent, our thinking mind may still be…

Earth teach me quiet ~ as the grasses are still with new light.

Earth teach me suffering ~ as old stones suffer with memory.

Earth teach me humility ~ as blossoms are humble with beginning.…